New Delhi, Mar 15 (UNI) Charging the government of making opposition as “voiceless” in the critical manner like selection of Lokpal, Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday rejected the centre’s invite to be a special invitee at the anti-corruption ombudsman meeting.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Kharge said, “A 'special invitee' would not have any rights of participation in the process of selection of the Lokpal and I cannot accept the opposition being made voiceless in a critical matter.”
The Congress leader said, since 2014, the government had not made any attempt to amend the relevant provisions of the Lokpal Act to include the Leader of the single largest party in the Opposition to be a member of the Selection Committee.
This is the seventh meeting of the Lokpal Selection Committee that Mr Kharge has declined to attend since the process began on February 28 previous year.
“The fact that all meetings have been held as scheduled and a search committee was formed that has shortlisted names for the Lokpal show that the intention of the government was only to exclude the Opposition from this crucial process,” Kharge said.
“Since there is no provision under Section 4 of the Lokpal Act 2013 for a Special Invitee to be part of the Selection Committee to attend these meetings, I am once again forced to respectfully decline this invitation,” the Congress leader added.
The Lokpal Search Committee led by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai has forwarded three panels of names for chairperson, judicial members and non-judicial members to the Lokpal Selection Committee.
A meeting of the committee is scheduled later in the day.
Parliament had passed the Lokpal Act in 2013 when the Congress-led UPA government was in power.
The law provides for a Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in states to probe the cases of corruption against public servants.
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